Editorials
A place to stash some opinion articles I've written/will write. :) © 2019 Ash Knight (Samurai), all rights reserved. _________ 12-Year-Old Instructors? Something I’ve seen in a lot of taekwondo schools is the presence of child “assistant instructors”. Generally speaking, youth involved in leadership is a good thing, but taekwondo instruction is not where they belong. One of the biggest issues is the lack of maturity. Young assistant instructors are just that - young. They simply aren’t old enough to be able to lead a group of students, especially when there are many of their peers among those students. They will fool around and goof off with their friends in the class instead of actually helping the students learn taekwondo, something I have witnessed firsthand many times over. The “assistant instructors” don’t actually help - the most they do is stand there and occasionally walk around, doing nothing more than getting in the way of students performing kicking drills in an already tight space. In addition, they never actually help the lead instructor beyond helping him or her demonstrate a technique (which a student could do as well, and it wouldn’t make a difference). They never clean up after class like they’re supposed to - in fact, it was always me who had to pick up the kicking shields and weights after class, while the “assistant instructors” simply left to talk with their friends. Despite this, taekwondo schools recruit every teen and preteen into their assistant program. Instructor trainees are not chosen by merit, but instead by age, and that is not the way it should be. Many of the instructor trainees are not only very young, but also not as passionate about teaching as they should be. Instructor training programs should be reserved for those of us who want to teach, those of us who want to share our love of martial arts, and those of us who are mature enough to lead a taekwondo class. Schools Have Gone Too Far with Their Restrictions While schools should block harmful or inappropriate websites, they crossed the line when they started blocking social networking sites. You claim to be "eliminating distractions", but all you're doing is creating a restricted, oppressed environment. I feel like I'm living under an all-powerful dictator when I'm at school because I can't access my writing website or any of the perfectly appropriate sites I use (including the Scholastic Forums Wiki). I'll have you know that I make good use of my time - I get my work done, and THEN I write stuff. THEN I scroll through pictures of dogs. THEN I post artwork. It's not something I do in the middle of class, so you can stop with that "it's a distraction" claim. Of course, some others aren't as responsible as I believe I am, but if they don't want to learn, if they want to fail school, that's on them. Stop blocking everything, because a) you can never eliminate all distractions anyway, b) students will find a way around your firewall anyway, therefore making your efforts a waste of time, and c) we're practically adults. We can make our own decisions. We don't need you helicopter-parenting and not letting us access our blogs or things along those lines. If a student wants to blog instead of study, let them do it! They can decide for themselves if they want to pass or fail and act accordingly. As long as it doesn't disrupt class (and forum/blog websites won't), you shouldn't have a problem with it. Thank you. Category:Content (Samurai) Category:Stories